Shattered Gates of Slaughterguard

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Yeah, Horde had pretty crappy production values -- it is virtually illegible. The current format works much better in color. For lower cost -- what's wrong with black and white? You know, white pages, black text?

One other thing I didn't particularly care for in Slaughtergarde was the division of the adventure into multiple books. It can be done that way and done well, but having two-third of the adventure in one book and a third in another just seems silly. If you want two volumes, put all the adventure in one, and the maps in the second (and player stuff in a third, if that's important to you).

With the new format, I'd prefer simply to keep everything in one volume. EtCR was good for that, plus it had nice production values. (minus the "missing conclusion" editting gaffe).

(Oh, and maybe we could merge the Slaughtergarde threads?)

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I think that SGoS must have originally meant to have been a colour book but got changed to black and white late in the process. There really is no other explanation as to why half the text is illegible otherwise.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Ranes]

Olaf, I think you meant SotHH. SGoS is colour.

 

[Rafael Ceurdepyr]

The niftiest thing for me is the reduction in prep time. I read SGoS on the plane ride home after visiting relatives over Christmas. Since then, I've run about half of it and have never had to prep again. With the layout, it's easy to remember what's going on in each room. Even with one sequence where monsters were running from room to room, alerting each other, it took only a quick page flip to look at the map and remember how the room worked.

I also find it makes running the session faster. I can set up tiles and draw on my flip mat a lot faster with a larger scale map in the module.

I wholeheartedly agree! I'm far from a new DM, but I tend to homebrew adventures and make them, um, complicated, plus I don't have a lot of time to do that as often as I'd like, so it is very nice to be able to pick up Slaughtergarde and run it without much prep. The layout makes it really easy. Having the overall map in one book and the encounters in another is very helpful and saves having to flip back and forth. My players did the laboratory part backwards (meeting the cleric early on), but it was no problem since all I had to do was find the right sections.

One thing I'd like is a list of suggested D&D minis that could be used for the adventure. (I was excited to get the howler I needed in the last box of Blood War minis I bought.) I've gotten lists off the Wizards boards, but it would be handy to have them there. Using the maug mini made me very happy as well.

My group found Slaughtergarde refreshing, as we hardly ever do honest-to-goodness dungeon crawls. I've put some bits in for a quest later on dealing with the presence in Vaathwood, so it is good for modding.

I liked the "chrome" of the module as well--the map, the players guide, the illustrations. Although one of the illustrations didn't go with the text (the one of the fanged and demon-head-carved doorway that didn't actually have any semblance to a demon).

I heartily recommend it, and will buy other adventures in the same format.

 

[hong]

Another really, really cool thing about the new format is that there's all sorts of varied terrain and props for the encounters. You have fights taking place in a flooded room, on the edge of a cliff, with timed conditions going off... sure, I can do all this myself, but all too often I succumb to white-map syndrome. Having it laid out for me ensures that there's going to be more to the location than just a bunch of walls and an arena.

 

[hong]

Oh yeah, the goblins playing Three-Dragon Ante is a nice touch.

 

[diaglo]

Yeah, Horde had pretty crappy production values -- it is virtually illegible. The current format works much better in color. For lower cost -- what's wrong with black and white? You know, white pages, black text?

One other thing I didn't particularly care for in Slaughtergarde was the division of the adventure into multiple books. It can be done that way and done well, but having two-third of the adventure in one book and a third in another just seems silly. If you want two volumes, put all the adventure in one, and the maps in the second (and player stuff in a third, if that's important to you).

With the new format, I'd prefer simply to keep everything in one volume. EtCR was good for that, plus it had nice production values. (minus the "missing conclusion" editting gaffe).

(Oh, and maybe we could merge the Slaughtergarde threads?)

ditto on all accounts.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

You have fights taking place in a flooded room, on the edge of a cliff, with timed conditions going off...

That screams mearls.

 

[hong]

That screams mearls.

Indeed, no prizes for guessing who has developer credits on Slaughtergarde.

 

[Mark Chance]

My son spent some of his allowance money on SGoS for me to DM for him, his sister, and my wife. Other than a strange formatting choice here and there (e.g., dividing the adventure between two books in a counterintuitive manner), I was generally pleased with the product. It is certainly sufficient for an introductory campaign for new players.